


The Alternates

by gdesertsand



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Black Paladin Lance (Voltron), Dark, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family Drama, Family Feels, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Lance meeting his alternate selves in different realities, Langst, Team as Family, tags will be added as the story progress
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-08
Updated: 2017-08-19
Packaged: 2018-12-12 18:57:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11743128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gdesertsand/pseuds/gdesertsand
Summary: There was this constant presence that always follows Lance whenever and wherever he was. After being proven to him that alternate realities do exist he start to wonder...is there a version of Lance out there who became a better Paladin compared to him?And then the constant presence that always with him showed up and introduced himself as "ClockWork" who was previously known in his reality as "Lance" too before Voltron betrayed him.





	1. ClockWork

Lance might always feel the constant feeling of loneliness but he never felt truly alone. No, he was never alone. There was this persistent feeling that someone was always watching him, staring at him, looking at his every move, judging his every action. That presence was there, always. Whenever he was the only one in the room that someone, or worse,  _something_  was always attached to Lance.

 When he was a kid, he thought it was just his imagination. After all, it was known that kids often have imaginary friends that they liked to play with. The thing was…Lance’s imaginary friend never wanted to play with him. Despite not seeing the presence Lance was always aware where this…this invisible being was. He would toss the ball but the presence will just merely gaze upon it and do nothing.

There were times when Lance was in his down moments he felt that the presence was somehow trying to console him. The day that his first pet cat died, Lance felt a warm embrace enveloping his whole body. It was warm enough to battle the cold pattering of raindrops against his skin.

There were instances though too where the presence was acting like a malicious spirit out to make Lance’s life as miserable as possible without killing the poor Cuban boy. When people start to mock Lance and his brain power, he honestly sensed that the presence was laughing mockingly at him, especially when Lance could do nothing to defend himself. When another kid threw the punch at Lance the presence was cheering and chanting.

  _Will you fight back or remain a coward?_

_Are you going to run?_

_Poor, poor child. You are going to run aren’t you? Don’t want to cause trouble in the family~_

_How are you going to explain your bruises? Oh! I know! How about the classics? Tell them you fell down the stairs! They will believe you, you are clumsy after all._

Lance might not hear the words directly but the he could still decipher the message somehow. The words clung with the winds, circling around Lance, ensuring that every bit of letter was heard and understood.

 Lance thought that it was all just his imagination due to his low self-esteem.

 If that was the case, then he wanted to change.

 Enter the time where he started not to take anymore bullshit from anyone. Lance started to pamper himself in order to look good. With the help of his older sisters and some of his older brothers, Lance learned how to use all sorts of cosmetics and how to properly care of his skin. He even learned how to make his own facial masks and which ingredients will be more effective on him. Lance also made it his mission to make other people feel good by complimenting them. The girls liked it, despite some finding it annoying in a fond way, and the boys will be uncomfortable for a bit but then started basking from Lance’s compliments.

 He tried to ignore the feeling of the presence sending to his mind how proud it was at his development. He tried to ignore it to the best of the abilities.

 (He could not ignore it for the praises made warmth to bloom inside his heart)

 The sinister side of the presence came back again when Lance entered the Garrison. Always being compared to the star student of the school and being a target of Iverson’s bullying…it was not a fun school years for Lance. The good thing was he met his good friend in the form of Hunk Garrett. The big guy might be prone for having anxiety attacks but Lance knew how to deal with it since he helped his nieces and nephews back in his family in Cuba.

 Whenever Lance was with Hunk though, the invisible presence becomes mute. It was still there but it was mute. Like, it was trying its best not to interfere with his interactions with Hunk. Like Hunk was a talisman against the presence’s malevolent side.

 When Pidge came to the equation though, the thought of the presence became conflicted between snarling at the youngest member of their team or keeping quiet because Hunk was with them. The presence was in turmoil which one it was supposed to do. In the end the presence decided to focus on Lance.

 The times that Iverson picked on Lance, Hunk was confused why the Cuban boy was letting the teacher talked to him like that and why always used his own self in order to protect the other two members of the team. Hunk was a bit angry at himself also because for everything that Lance had done to him he could not stand up against Iverson in order to protect his best friend when Lance did it for them without a second thought.

 Lance did not answer Hunk honestly. He also knew that Pidge could care less.

 (The truth was, Lance knew that all the bad lucks happening to Iverson were due to the presence. It might be malevolent at times but if there was one thing they could go along with was their feeling of despised against Iverson.)

 Then Voltron came in the equation.

 The presence accompanying Lance was purring with delight when he aboard the Blue Lion along with four other people. The presence made its distaste known to Lance about the other four though through the unexplainable bond that they have developed through the years. But it was forgotten immediately when they took off.

 In every fight they encounter against the enemies the presence was cheering, clapping, jumping in delight because the battle seemed to give it a rush of adrenaline. It was a feeling that also affected Lance so every real battle was something he could face with all confidence he could muster, it was as if the delight the presence was feeling was like a boost in Lance’s belief to himself that he could do this that he could fight like the rest of the Paladins and win. In training? Nope, the presence was like a lazy cat and let Lance navigate on his own and made a fool of himself in front of the others.

His perception against the presence though changed after they encounter the alternate reality. The reality where the Altean Empire lived and destroy the Galra and practically enslaved the majority of the universe by enforcing their beliefs and robbing the other species of their freedom by taking their will.

Could it be? Was it possible? Lance was not so sure what he thought anymore or if the idea would make any sense. For all he cared, Lance might not be mentally sound ever since he was a kid, ever since he became aware of the presence.

One night, he decided to ponder about it by meditating. Lance never truly tried this but he knew the principles. Jumping into the void his mind created was an easy task…he had the suspicion that the presence helped.

When he opened his eyes, Lance found himself floating within the abyss of darkness and nothingness. He looked around. It was all just darkness.

It was scary and not at the same time for Lance’s felt the presence was all over the place.

_“Hello!”_

Lance heard from behind and he immediately turned around faster than he could think. Lo and behold, standing in front of him was like looking in the mirror. The face, hair, and skin tone was the same. The clothes were not though. For Lance was wearing his Earth clothing, the man in front of him was wearing something you could find in a steam punk era. The man’s coat was leather black and reached his feet, Lance wonder how he could identify the cloak against this darkness, the shoulder part was similar to the way their Paladin armor puffed. His pants were in the same texture of his coat. Bronze, silver, and gold gears in different sizes adorned it. What caught Lance’s attention the most thought were the eyes, the eyes of the man were not ordinary. It was not Galra like nor Altean, it was not human nor hollow, the eyes…

The pupils were fashioned into golden clocks, with the roman numerals and all. The hands were even moving!

“You’re…you’re real…aren’t you? You are not just…just a figment of my imagination, right?”

 The man laughed gleefully at his question.

  _“Well, what makes you think so?”_

“The alternate realities thing. I now know Slav was telling the truth after seeing it for myself.” If only Lance could control the way his body float against this darkness then he would have made the distance between the presence and him a lot farther. Sadly, he could not and this let the solidified presence float nearer to him until they were only a few centimeters away from their bodies touching.

  _“Ah…Slav, he’s cute when he is confident to himself.”_  The now visible presence started circling around Lance,  _“Well, you could say that I am you…but you are not me…yet.”_

A dreadful feeling settled down on Lance’s stomach.

 “What do you mean?” it was a whispered question but he was still heard.

  _“You can call me “ClockWork” for I have long ago abandoned the name “Lance”.”_

_“…and to be honest? I became like this because **Voltron**  betrayed me.”_

Lance never believed before that alternate realities was possible, never entertained the idea that magic could be real.

 Now…now Lance could not decide if he was happy for this new information or sad for what he was about to discover.


	2. Black Paladin (Part 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clockwork needs to explain some stuff
> 
> Canon!Lance seeing Black Paladin!Lance for the first time
> 
> Oh goodness, this will not be good

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: OOCness and some grammatical errors, fast paced story.

If anyone will ask, Lance got no say in this matter. At all.

It was like with a flick of a finger Lance was already plummeting down from the endless abyss he found himself into. This was just a dream, a nightmare, or maybe…Lance finally lost it. The stressed of war finally got to his brain and now he was trapped in this psychedelic dream of sorts.  He had no control of what was happening. Lance now understood the feeling of little Alice when she fell down the rabbit hole. Just watching the passing of various objects, from music notes to rows of clocks up to even various images of places he had seen and some that could only be brought up by ones active imagination, made Lance to feel nauseous.

Clockwork Lance, or Clockwork as how the other guy liked to be called, was merely humming beside him. His position was relaxed; back facing the unknown ground they were about to plummet down to and his arms cushioning his head with his legs crossed and stretched out.

“Where are you taking me?!” Lance wished his voice was heard against from the howling wind that greeted them.

Lance received a laughed.

_“Somewhere I’ve been wanting to take you! Lots and lots of places to take you too!”_

“Really,  **really?!** ” frustration was clear on his voice as he looked directly at Clockwork, “A moment ago you just introduced yourself, dropped a bomb of info, and now you decided to kidnap me just because you want to and you can?!”

_“What? It’s not like anyone will miss us!”_

“Um, hello?! Defenders of the universe here? A Paladin? We don’t exactly have time taking vacations right now! Much more in an Alice in Wonderland kind of vacation! What is even with this weird trip down the rabbit hole?!”

 _“Hm…”_  Clockwork pondered at that for a short while,  _“Well, I guess that time this was a good theme in going to alternate realities. I mean, one of the “Alice in Wonderland’s” known scenes was when she fell down the rabbit hole.”_

“What even do you mean by that?!”

And suddenly…they stopped falling.

Lance flailed a bit in mid-air because while they indeed stopped falling there was still no visible ground for him to land on. He tried to gain some semblance of balance; still trying to apply logic in his body even though he knew it was not his strong suit, after a while he finally managed to get in a standing position while still floating. All that time, Clockwork was just staring at him with amusement sparkling in his clock like eyes.

“What?” Lance narrowed his eyes at his kidnapper with annoyance clearly written in his face.

 _“Your reactions are very amusing to watch.”_  Clockwork moved a few steps away from Lance after he said that, not caring to hear further what Lance has to say.

Of course Lance was about to voice out his complaints again but stopped when he saw the different sort of doors surrounding them. Great, first a rabbit hole straight from Alice in Wonderland and now Lance was having a flashback from that very old children’s movie. What was it again…monster something…oh, whatever the title of that movie.

 _“Welcome,”_  Clockwork started to speak again as he turned around and present to Lance all the doors floating alongside them, _“to the place where all alternates meet.”_

It was…mesmerizing if Lance was about to put it in one word. There were doors made of wood, with designs straight out from a Victorian era, some showed a metallic glint, there were plain prison like doors, stained glass covered ones, doors adorned by vines and flowers, golden ones, gray and lifeless appearance, and then there were some that radiated a simple yet suffocating malice.

Wait a minute…it seemed like everything moved a bit too fast.

“Where exactly are we?!”

His questioned went unheard because Lance didn’t notice that there was a door underneath him. It was black and had a fierce lioness occupying the whole center of the cold rectangular metal. Once it opened, it was like an airlock experience all over again.

Airlocks were evil.

* * *

“Is everyone okay?!” Lance, adorning the Black Paladin’s suit, asked around the room as he checked each one of the team. Like, literally patting them down all over their body’s despite already voicing out his concerns.

“Geez, Lance,” Pidge slapped the hand away from her shoulders none too gently but enough to mean that she didn’t mind the worried way the other showed it, “tone down the mother hen mode, will you?”

“Excuse me? I’m just worried!”

“We know, Lance. But we are alright. Aside from bruises from bumping here and there but—” Shiro didn’t got to finished his sentenced when Lance jumped on him and started demanding where he got hit.

“Ow…That’s never really a good experience…” Hunk stood up wobbly and used his chair as a support. The moment he said that was the time that Lance focused on the yellow paladin with parting words to Shiro that says  _“your buffiness helped you this time.”_

“Hunk! Did you hit your head?!”

“Ah…I guess? It’s just a mild bump though.” Hunk started patting his own head but Lance slapped it away in favor of checking it in his own.

“Do you feel dizzy? Do we need to put you in a crypod? Coran! Hunk needs a crypod!”

“Woah, woah, Lance I am fine!” and it was a scene of stopping their Black Paladin from stuffing Hunk to a crypod. Pidge was laughing so hard at the comedic way the things unfold before her, Coran was patiently explaining to Lance that no, Hunk would not be needing a crypod, that it was just an ordinary bump and no harm about it. Shiro was holding Lance’s shoulders to prevent him from dragging Hunk towards the infirmary or worse the pods room.

Keith sighed from where he was leaning on. Lance was living up to the Space Mom theme. And their leader was still furiously denying that he was the team Mom.

“It’s really fun watching Lance like this.” Keith heard Allura giggled beside him. She was checking the Castle’s system but her gaze would go back from Lance and the others with a soft smile on her lips. Ever since Lance got the Black Paladin role it seemed that their sole Cuban on board managed to make everyone relaxed in some degree for every minute they got. For every window, for every second. Just because they were fighting a war didn’t mean they should not cherish the simple moments like this.

“And he keeps saying that he is not the “Mom”.” Keith mocked sighed.

_“Yeah, I wonder why and he always acts like that.”_

Everyone whipped around to where they heard the echoing voiced (which was weirdly similar to Lance) and there behind Keith was someone looking similar yet not to their resident Black Paladin.

The unwanted visitor was lying in mid-air, his stomach facing the ground, feet up in the air, chin resting above his palms, and was sporting an amused grin while looking down upon the rest of the team. Upon closer look, Keith saw that the eyes of the trespasser were a ticking clock. Maybe it was his imagination working but he could hear the ticking from it too.

“Who are y—OOF!”

“AH!”

Lance, their Black Paladin, didn’t manage to finish his question for another person dropped down directly on him. The force was enough to put them face down on the floor.

This time…the man feel out of nowhere  _really_  looked like Lance. A carbon copy. The only difference was that the other guy was wearing Lance’s Earth clothes in contrast to their leader who was still wearing his Black Paladin suit.

“Ouch…” the Lance-copy muttered before standing up immediately and put an accusing finger towards the Lance-with-clock-eyes, “You! A warning will be the least thing you could do next time if you are going to drag me away, Clockwork!”

Clockwork, as Lance-copy called him, hummed simply indicating that he did not care at all what the other was talking about.

“Ghhert uff meee…” Lance-copy looked down and shouted apologies when he realized that he was directly standing on someone. Clockwork laughed at this.

“Okay…okay…this is freaky…” Hunk was twiddling his thumbs together as he stared back and forth at the three Lance(s) before them. “Did we crossed again a corrupted wormhole?”

“Quite possible considering our luck towards wormholes nowadays. I mean, we just realized that Slav’s predictions of alternate realities are real thus the reason we met the evil Alteans before.” Pidge adjusted her glasses and wanted to get closer to Clockwork due to pure curiosity on how his eyes worked similar to his namesake. Self-preservation and doubt if he was an enemy was thrown out of the window for Pidge when a fight didn’t happen the first thing the two strangers appeared.

 _“Stay away from me if you want to live, Green Paladin.”_  With those words of threat, everyone stiffened and readied their bayards just in case the guy decided to attack one of them.

“Who are you two? Why do you look like me?” Lance growled out, brows furrowed in a frown as he took the front line like mother bear protecting her young ones.

Lance-copy, Keith needed another name for the guy, just stared at their leader with wide eyes. He was scanning the armor their Lance was wearing then gazing back at the others and the more his eyes passed one of them the more his jaw dropped in a surprised that Keith could not fathom to understand.

 _“Close that mouth of yours, will you?”_  Clockwork floated beside Lance-copy and was about to closed his mouth when the other whirled around and snapped at clock guy.

“Is this a joke to you?!” Lance-copy was furious at Clockwork. Fists were curled in an angered ball, lips twisted in a snarl, and his eyes had some dancing flames of frustrations within, “I know you like making fun of me! Making my life miserable most of the time! Heck, you’ve been watching me my whole life laughing at every mistake I make! And now! NOW!” Lance-copy took a deep breathe, “YOU DARE TO WAVE AT MY FACE THIS ILLUSION OF ME BEING A BLACK PALADIN?!”

_“Technically, this is not an illusion. This is another reality where **black paladin Lance**  happened. As you can see that there is a Lance wearing the black paladin suit before us.”_

“Great! THAT’S GREAT!” Lance-copy was breathing too fast for Keith’s liking, “ANOTHER REALITY! YOU LOVE FLAUNTING IT IN FRONT OF ME THAT I AM FAILURE, AREN’T YOU?!”

Ragged breathes followed the outburst. It was…so out of character in Keith’s opinion. He never saw their Lance snapped like that. Heck, none of them saw Lance with real anger directed to any member of their team. To see this unrestrained display of fierce negative emotions? It was…a new experienced.

Clockwork lost all his playfulness displayed on his face before and replaced by a seriousness that even Lance-copy was forced to tone down his anger. The eyes mimic a serpentine appearance when the clock hands moved to six o’clock.

 _“No, that is not the reason why we are here. This place,”_  Clockwork spread his arms to emphasized his point,  _“is another route that could have been for you. After all, you are the original timeline. The original Lance. I am just showing you the could have’s and the would have’s.”_

 _“This is a “could have” reality.”_ Clockwork pointed towards the Black Paladin,  _“And I am your “would have” reality.”_

Well…that was an info bomb.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay! Which one you want Canon!Lance to see first?
> 
> BlackPaladin!Lance
> 
> Mafia!Lance Salazar
> 
> Mer!Lance
> 
> Avian!Lance
> 
> Champion!Lance
> 
> Altean!Lance
> 
> Corrupted!Lance [ A) Brainwashed/Manipulated or B) He was already dark from the start]
> 
> Normal Human in Earth setting!Lance
> 
> PersonalitySwap!Lance (aka Red Paladin Lance)
> 
> Others (what is your suggestion?)
> 
> Send your answers to my tumblr: @gdesertsand  
> or comment here if you want!  
> I'll be waiting!


End file.
